Posts Tagged ‘nissan marketing’

In a stunning upset, Nissan Motor Co. surged past rival Honda Motor Co. to become the second-largest Japanese automaker – and join the Top Five car manufacturers worldwide.

The switch in status was driven, to a significant degree, by Nissan’s success in tapping the emerging Chinese automotive market. Nissan sales there surged by 36% in 2010, and at 1.02 million units, sales in China accounted for a full 25% of the Japanese maker’s global 4.08 million total.

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Worldwide, Nissan saw a 22% increase in volume, last year, compared to 5% for Honda, which reported global volume of 3.56 million. However, the two makers combined still fell short of the 8.42 million cars, trucks and crossovers sold by the world’s automotive leader, Toyota, and its various subsidiaries.

It was a big year for Nissan, which not only launched the Leaf battery car, shown here, but which captured consumer attention with its TV spots.

The last strains of Auld Lang Syne have faded until next December 31st but the annual bacchanal of Car of the Year, or COTY, corporate ego/hype awards culminates next week at the Detroit Auto Show with the selection of the car and truck of the year, as determined by a select group of 50 auto journalists.

You can be certain the winners will proclaim their accolades proudly in their advertising, particularly television commercials, which even with all the social media acclaim and hyperbole, still gets the biggest part of every auto advertiser’s budget. But just how effective and memorable are car commercials with consumers?

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Ace Metrix, a respected authority in television advertising effectiveness has just announced the Ace Score Top Television Ads in several categories including automotive advertising. The winners in the auto category are going to shock, surprise and stun some of the new crop of recently added advertising agencies and their clients as well as long term agencies still on the roster as agency of record.

It’s back to Tokyo for Simon Sproule, the former chief of global public relations for Nissan Motor Co. who left the automaker, in early 2009, for a brief stint in the high-tech world.

The return of Sproule, who will also take on key marketing duties with his once-and-future employer, is the latest shake-up of Nissan’s global PR management. Though he has yet to be given the formal title, Bentley’s former chief flak, David Reuter has become the de facto head of Nissan’s public relations operations in the States.

The 41-year-old Sproule has had a momentous career path, over the last decade. Starting out as a low-level manager in the Ford organization, he rose to become the PR head of that maker’s Jaguar subsidiary – then jumped to Nissan. His tenure at the Asian maker’s former U.S. headquarters in Los Angeles didn’t last long, however.

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Barely a year after joining Nissan, Sproule was recruited by hard-charging CEO Carlos Ghosn to take on global PR duties in Tokyo.

Marketing exec Joel Ewanick is on the move again, this time to Detroit.

Forgive the post office if they have a hard time forwarding Joel Ewanick’s e-mail. The former Hyundai marketing executive has been moving fast, lately, and is now on the road again.

The 49-year-old Ewanick will take the top marketing position at General Motors, effective May 24, directly reporting to GM’s North American President Mark Reuss. It puts Ewanick into a critical position at a time when GM is struggling to not just kick-start sales but shift its focus from eight North American brands to the four that survived its bankruptcy, last year.

Working out of the Detroit Renaissance Center, Ewanick will take over the position held, since last year, by General Motors’ top-ranking woman executive, Susan Docherty. The surprise appointment appears to underscore a promise by GM CEO Ed Whitacre that top management would be held accountable for the company’s performance.